Posts Tagged 'cinnamon'

If you have never made cinnamon buns, you shouldn’t unless you are having serious death-pang cravings for them. They take an infinite amount of preparation, planning and wait time, which is only half acceptable if your mind is properly prepared for the rigor.

And the end result is just…warm cinnamon roll centers straight from the oven slathered with lemon-y cream cheese icing?

Wait, did I just advise you not to make cinnamon rolls?

Strike that. Reverse it. (Name that movie. Hint: one of the three movies I ever quote from.)

New plan. 1) Prepare mind with a few calming breaths. 2) Make cinnamon rolls. 3) Consume. 4) Collapse for the afternoon due to exhaustion/food coma.

The actual roll part of this recipe might be great. However, the CD of my brain decided to skip when it came to the whole “add the butter” part, and I spent a few extra minutes trying to knead in softened butter to a weirdly crumbly dough, potentially upping the toughness of these buns.

I feel somewhat vindicated, though, because Sweetapolita’s buns, though packaged more prettily than mine, look about the same. They just don’t have the same ooey-gooey, pull-apart lusciousness that your average Cinnabon roll would have. I also was nonplussed with the filling part of this. OK, I’m beating around the bush.

Buns = highly average. Make some other ones.

But this frosting.

But.

This frosting could make a foot palatable. It is SO FLUFFYYYYY. And deliciously decadent.

All in all, cinnamon rolls are worth a whole day of work. You should make them.

To make the rools, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. When the mixture foams, add the sugar, margarine salt, eggs, and flour, and mix well.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough into a large ball. You can flour your hands too, if you find that the dough is too sticky. Don’t go crazy, now. We don’t want tough buns. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 21 inches long by 16 inches wide by 1/4 inch thick.

To make the filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface, leaving about 1″ untouched around edges.

Roll up the dough the hot dog way, and try to keep the filling inside. Pinch the edge to seal. With a sharp knife, slice the log into 12 pieces. Place in a greased 9×13″ pan about 2″ apart, cover with a dishcloth, and let the rolls rise for another hour. Bake in a 400 degree oven on a rack just above center for about 10 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool on a cooling rack and place into airtight container when cool. Or just leave ’em in your pan. It’s not like they won’t be gone in 24 hours.

Cloned Cinnabon Frosting from Gordon Family via Sweetapolita

This recipe is kind of exact and bomb, so I am just posting their exact words so I don’t mess it up. You can find the original posting here.

Ingredients:

Amount

Measure

Ingredient and Preparation Method

4

oz

Cream Cheese (0.25 lb)

1/2

Cup

Margarine (0.25 lb, i.e. 1 stick)

1 3/4

Cup

10x Powdered Sugar (or Sugar Fondant) (1/2 lb)

1

tsp

Vanilla Flavor (preferably Alcohol Free)

1/8

tsp

Lemon Flavor (preferably Alcohol Free)

Method (in their words):

For the fluffiest frosting, use Vanilla and Lemon flavors that do not contain alcohol. A total of 50 minutes is required to prepare the frosting, from start to finish. We normally prepare the frosting while the rolls are rising.

Remove the cream cheese and margarine from the refrigerator and place it into the mixing bowl. Leave it for about half an hour so that it will not be too cold.

Use the Flat Beater (or Paddle) to blend the cream cheese and margarine for 6 minutes. Use a speed of 65 RPM, or the “slow mixing” speed on your machine. We use setting #2 on our KitchenAid Mixer.

Switch to the Stainless Steel Whip and whip the cream cheese and margarine mixture for 10 minutes. Use a speed of 150 RPM, or the “medium fast whipping” speed on your machine. We use setting #6 on our KitchenAid Mixer.

Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar and mix for 1 minute using the Stainless Steel Whip at 65 RPM. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of powdered sugar and mix for an additional minute.

Lastly, add the Vanilla Flavor and Lemon Flavor and whip for 1 minute using the Stainless Steel Whip at 150 RPM.

I realize this cupcake looks like a cross between my brain on a Friday and a stylized flower. Unattractive.

I realize that this mount of spice looks rather unlike a mount of spice and instead looks more like a bit of carrot soup with someone’s beard shavings from an electric razor. Unattractive.

I realize that this looks like some puke caught in a bowl with lentils mixed in. Unattractive.

I realize that I love pumpkin a lot and post about it continually, and that I have extremely inadequate manners which I’m sure are the reasons you read my blog. Attractive.

But seriously, I don’t regret these at all. Despite looking awful in a bowl, these babies are gorgeous in a mouth. They are the cupcake version of every wonderful pumpkin cake slash bar you have had. Oh, and if you follow the frosting recipe I put below, yours won’t turn out like the gloppy mess I had. Go Germany!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with liners if you are making cupcakes.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and vegetable oil. Mix for a couple of minutes until it’s well mixed and some air is incorporated. Set aside.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

By hand, stir the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients just until combined. There will be some lumps.

Pour mixture into a greased 9×13 pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

While the cake is cooling, make the frosting.

In a large bowl combine the softened cream cheese and butter. Mix on high until fluffy.

Add the confectioner’s sugar and mix on low until incorporated. Then turn on high and whip the heck out of it. Add the vanilla and continue to whip. I wanted a light and fluffy frosting so I had mine running on high for a few minutes after the ingredients were all added.

I like carrot cake as a rule, but this carrot cake is exceptional. Whether it is baked into loaf pans or in cake pans, it always turns out delectably moist and bursting with flavor. Plus, don’t you feel like carrot cakes are practically healthy? I mean, it is cake, but look at all that grated orange! It’s like a big Vitamin E, 10-calorie mountain in the middle of a vast, brown wasteland of everything that is bad for you. Carrots are the saving grace of carrot cake.

Moist cakes are the best cakes. I practically don’t even like angel food cake because it is too fluffily dry. Plus, I once had a bad experience using angel food cake mix to make muffins. Let the record show that pumpkin spice muffins should not taste lemon-fermented.

I whipped together some cream cheese frosting to further offset the healthy carrots. Ahem. Super simple. Beat together 8 ounces of cream cheese and 8 tablespoons of butter, then add in four cups of powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla. If you want stiffer frosting, just add more powdered sugar. Bam.

And! I added star anise for décor. Pretty, eh? We didn’t actually eat that part, and I felt that there are a bunch of cooler things I could do with it in the future. So expect some anise coming up sometime. We picked of the stars, but the frosting around them had been licorice-infused. An interesting addition.

You probably already know about my obsession with snickerdoodles. There have been snickerdoodle muffins and snickerdoodle cupcakes already on this blog. But what you have likely missed, being that you are not me, is the countless number of true snickerdoodle cookies I have eaten in my lifetime.

I ate a snickerdoodle at least once a week this summer cuz I was workin’ at ca-amp, and it was glorious. Working at camp and eating the cookies. Depending on the week and who was baking them, the cookies would turn out flatter or puffier, crispier or softer. My favorites were the soft n’ chewy weeks. No surprise there, but it’s not like I was complaining the rest of the time. Heaven forbid.

Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients besides the cinnamon sugar and mix to combine.

Using a cookie scoop or two spoons, scoop up a ball of dough. Roll it briefly in your hands to form it into a ball, then roll it in a dish filled with cinnamon sugar to coat.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until tops have cracked a bit.

I hope you are salivating, because I am. And heaven knows I love blending into the crowd. Question: have you ever gleeked on someone accidentally? That has to be one of the most embarrassing things in the world. Besides the expulsion of internal “vapors” after eating stuffed chicken breast. Yikes.

Question: Have you ever gleeked on someone on purpose? I’ll pray for you. Don’t ever do that to me. Seck.

Anyway, this recipe takes time. It takes patience. It takes yeast.

Some people are scared of yeast. They think it’s kind of fussy and easy to mess up. I’ve never had much trouble if I follow recipes carefully. The key is to get it the right temperature. Soothing warmth. Soothing warmth.

But I promise, these cinnamon rolls are something else. It’s late, and I can’t think of the proper descriptive words to come up with the blissful euphoria that accompanies the baking, eating and glorious aftermath that accompanies these rolls. But they are worth braving your yeast fears. No regrets now.

In this recipe, the yeast is enveloped in an oil and milk blanket. There are no horses in the original recipe, but I am going to use the word ‘adapted’ liberally.

I used my mummy’s rolling pin. It reminds me of my childhood. Plus, it is gourmet.

I’m not going to post a whole bunch of tips and tricks about this recipe because it is a PW recipe, and she explains everything so well that I would be adding nothing to the experience. If you need a great explanation for every step, follow the link below.

Oh please do make these for everyone you know (and me). The recipe makes a bunch, and they are the best cinnamon rolls I have efer eaten.

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting.

I once posted about Snickerdoodle Muffins as a non-cookie substitute for the real thing. But I forgot! that I had already made a snickerdoodly thing. It was this last autumn. With my old camera(…). And I piped them pretty ok.

My dad liked ’em a lot. He actually requested them a second time. How nice of him, don’t you think? My dad loves me. I know because he tells me. Plus, he eats my baked goods and tells me when I have grammatical errors on my blog. I can take the criticism. Usually.

The cake in this recipe is really springy and happy–it requires cake flour, but I don’t know how much of a difference it would make if you used all-purpose flour. The frosting is really good for piping and slides down the hatch real easy. Like how a watermelon would slip out of your hands if it was greased and you were playing with it in the water.

(I know that that was a really irrelevant and weird analogy. In an attempt to jazz up my writing and use descriptive language, I am attempting to use more analogy. I realize this may not be very successful, but I’m willing to give it a go. Like the slimy politician who makes ridiculous promises because his poll ratings are on their last legs. Ok, Lauren, you can quit now).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among the lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored for up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen for up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

To make the buttercream, cream the butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt together. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk until creamy. You may need to add in some more milk or sugar until you get the right consistency, the consistency of awesome hatch flow. Then pipe on the icing or glop it on with a spoon or whatever.

Because butter is such a prized commodity in my house, and I use it so often, I try and do a little research before I dive into a new recipe. For example, I could google ‘vanilla cupcakes recipe’ and the first link might be moist and flavorful, or it could be a total bust. No one likes a dry, vanilla-less vanilla cupcake.

Instead of just printing off the first recipe to meet mine eyes, I usually poke around a bit, read comments, compare ingredients, that sort of thing. In the end, I can either find a recipe that is perfect, or I can adjust a decent recipe to be as I think it should be (which as we know, could be not so great, but we’ll just pretend I have brilliant baking ideas all the time).

In the case of these oatmeal cream pies, which were slapped together very quickly on a Monday morning, I did not do the proper research. They were good, but the cookie was not as soft as I would have liked. No one complained about the cinnamon buttercream, though. That was real good. It was a little different, you know? Not your average Little Debbie cream filling. It was very whippED.